1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program recording reservation system capable of performing an appropriate program recording reservation operation in order to record programs, to a recording apparatus capable of recording content, and to a controller apparatus capable of transmitting a control signal to set recording reservations for programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a result of the advancement of information technology, a technology has come to be used in which a plurality of electronic apparatuses in a house are interconnected with one another over a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network), so that information is shared and managed among the electronic apparatuses.
As recording apparatuses capable of recording television broadcasts, HDD (Hard Disk Drive) recorders, which are large-capacity recording media, have been put into practical use. Since the recording capacity of an HDD recorder is as much as several hundred gigabytes, it is possible to record programs for a long duration. Furthermore, since HDD recorders have superior random search performance, they have become widely used in homes.
There is a known program recording reservation system in which recording reservations of programs are set in advance, and specified content is recorded on a recording medium when a set time is reached. Such a program recording reservation system is constituted by, for example, an HDD recorder, and can record content having a large amount of data, such as moving images, audio and the like by incorporating a large-capacity recording medium such as an HDD therein or by connection to an external network. Furthermore, recently, various kinds of removable media have been provided as removable storage media. Then, by storing photographs and moving images captured using, for example, a digital still camera, and music imported from a computer apparatus on a removable medium and by connecting the removable medium to a program recording reservation system, it has become possible for a user to copy photographs, moving images, music files and the like to an HDD recorder. It is also possible to reproduce a copied photograph, a moving image, or an audio file in order to display it on a television receiver connected to the HDD recorder and in order to output audio.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-244372 (FIG. 1), there is disclosed a technology for performing a recording reservation setting operation by coordinating operations of information processing apparatuses having a program recording reservation function, which are connected over a network.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-244576 (FIG. 1), there is disclosed a technology for performing a program recording reservation operation in each of a plurality of apparatuses set in separate locations by suitably coordinating operations among two or more information processing apparatuses.